The Twisp Tree Board once again encourages residents to take part in the town’s annual Arbor Day Celebration on Saturday, April 30, starting at 11 a.m. in the Twisp Commons Park adjacent to the Methow Valley Community Center.
The event will include a ceremony, a tree giveaway and a tree planting, demonstrating proper planting techniques.
For the 21st consecutive year the Town of Twisp has been awarded “Tree City USA” status by the National Arbor Day Foundation, celebration organizer and tree advocate Dwight Filer reported. The town established a tree board to celebrate the inaugural Arbor Day Event in 2003.
“Historically, in the last 30 years and throughout the country, municipalities have lost a huge portion of their urban tree canopy. The Town of Twisp’s Tree Board is trying to reverse that trend with the Arbor Day Foundation’s help,” Filer said. “The state of Washington recently passed House Bill 1216, which funnels more money than ever before into urban forestry.”
The Tree Board applied for and received two grants this last winter. The first, through the Community Foundation of North Central Washington, will kick-start a collaboration with Classroom in Bloom, working with first-graders to establish a “Seed to Sapling” tree nursery. The trees grown there will eventually be distributed throughout the greater Methow Valley community.
The second grant is through the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and will enable the town to update its 2004 Comprehensive Community Forestry Management Plan, create a Comprehensive Tree Planting Plan that will guide the Tree Board’s program into the future, and celebrate the new plans with a demonstration tree planting project this fall, Filer said.
For more information, contact Filer at dwight@methownet.com, or call (509) 860-4478.
